Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Seems to be becoming a trend. These headaches tend to be taking over every aspect of life lately. Frustrating to say the least.
So the last update headache related I gave I told you I was starting on Topamax and let you in on a few "funny" things it had caused me to do. As I increased the dose over the following weeks it got much, much worse. Really to the point it started affecting my job and that was a breaking point for me because of the type of decisions I have to make at work sometimes. I did not feel like myself at all. Justin even told me I didn't act like myself. The day before I talked to my doctor's nurse practitioner about it, I just felt drugged. That's the best way I know to describe it. It was the worst feeling. I sent her an email describing the worst of the behaviors I have been exhibiting and she said they had to get me off the medicine "quickly", "for my own safety". Let me interject here....I was never self destructive or wanted to be. I'll let you in later on some of the things Topamax "helped" me do. Some of them, well the majority of them, are quite comical. Haha!! I can say that now. I was up to four 25mg pills a day and she is decreasing me 1 pill every 4 days. I will be completely off Topamax by this coming Friday, April 15th if all goes as planned!! Within the first day of decreasing by 1 pill I already began to feel more like myself. I'm not totally there yet, but Justin has begun to notice a difference and I'm feeling much better behaviorally. It will take a while after I'm off the medicine for it to get out of my system completely, but it's good knowing I'm on the right path.
I also had Botox done a little over a week ago. Insurance approved it and Justin was changing jobs so it was a last minute rush to get it done before we lost the coverage. I'm not sure what I think about it. It hurt...I can tell you that much!! I had over 20 shots injected into my forehead, temples, all over my scalp, lower head, neck, lower neck, and shoulders. The doctor told me it would feel like a bug bite, but I honestly have never been bitten by any bug that bites like that. I squirmed on the table the entire time he did the injections. He told me it would take about 2 weeks to start working...if it does work. And it should last about 3 months. This coming Thursday will be 2 weeks, so we'll see. So far absolutely NO improvement. It's actually been significantly worse.
I'm not sure if it's the Botox, or coming off Topamax, or the weather, or a combination of all of them, or something entirely unrelated. But over the past week my headaches have seemed to explode. I have never really felt like the headaches I've been having are the typical "migraine" people and doctors describe. This past week though, I have. And it's been non-stop. I had to go home from work early Friday. I ate lunch and went to bed. I slept until Justin got home from work. He went and got dinner and I dozed on and off that evening, then slept through the night. Saturday my headache wasn't as bad, but was still there. I had baby shower stuff to do with one of my friends all day and I couldn't let her down, but I was in bed once I got home. Today my headache is like it was Friday. I'm tired of spending all my time in bed sleeping though. I want to get back to reading my books, taking my dogs on walks since the weather is so pretty, hanging out and having fun with my family. It's just frustrating. Before August everything was fine. I didn't have to deal with any of this and now it feels like it consumes my life. I really hate it.
So the last update headache related I gave I told you I was starting on Topamax and let you in on a few "funny" things it had caused me to do. As I increased the dose over the following weeks it got much, much worse. Really to the point it started affecting my job and that was a breaking point for me because of the type of decisions I have to make at work sometimes. I did not feel like myself at all. Justin even told me I didn't act like myself. The day before I talked to my doctor's nurse practitioner about it, I just felt drugged. That's the best way I know to describe it. It was the worst feeling. I sent her an email describing the worst of the behaviors I have been exhibiting and she said they had to get me off the medicine "quickly", "for my own safety". Let me interject here....I was never self destructive or wanted to be. I'll let you in later on some of the things Topamax "helped" me do. Some of them, well the majority of them, are quite comical. Haha!! I can say that now. I was up to four 25mg pills a day and she is decreasing me 1 pill every 4 days. I will be completely off Topamax by this coming Friday, April 15th if all goes as planned!! Within the first day of decreasing by 1 pill I already began to feel more like myself. I'm not totally there yet, but Justin has begun to notice a difference and I'm feeling much better behaviorally. It will take a while after I'm off the medicine for it to get out of my system completely, but it's good knowing I'm on the right path.
I also had Botox done a little over a week ago. Insurance approved it and Justin was changing jobs so it was a last minute rush to get it done before we lost the coverage. I'm not sure what I think about it. It hurt...I can tell you that much!! I had over 20 shots injected into my forehead, temples, all over my scalp, lower head, neck, lower neck, and shoulders. The doctor told me it would feel like a bug bite, but I honestly have never been bitten by any bug that bites like that. I squirmed on the table the entire time he did the injections. He told me it would take about 2 weeks to start working...if it does work. And it should last about 3 months. This coming Thursday will be 2 weeks, so we'll see. So far absolutely NO improvement. It's actually been significantly worse.
I'm not sure if it's the Botox, or coming off Topamax, or the weather, or a combination of all of them, or something entirely unrelated. But over the past week my headaches have seemed to explode. I have never really felt like the headaches I've been having are the typical "migraine" people and doctors describe. This past week though, I have. And it's been non-stop. I had to go home from work early Friday. I ate lunch and went to bed. I slept until Justin got home from work. He went and got dinner and I dozed on and off that evening, then slept through the night. Saturday my headache wasn't as bad, but was still there. I had baby shower stuff to do with one of my friends all day and I couldn't let her down, but I was in bed once I got home. Today my headache is like it was Friday. I'm tired of spending all my time in bed sleeping though. I want to get back to reading my books, taking my dogs on walks since the weather is so pretty, hanging out and having fun with my family. It's just frustrating. Before August everything was fine. I didn't have to deal with any of this and now it feels like it consumes my life. I really hate it.
2 comments:
You need to learn Occlumency so you can keep Lord Voldemort out of your head. Your scar is going to explode!
You have really been listening to WAY too much HP lately. ;)
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